[Methodology for detecting enteric viruses in sea water].

Within the set of measures to protect the marine environment against ever greater viral pollution, the methodology for the detection of human virus in seawater is of primary importance as a means of evaluating the efficiency of protective measures. So far only a limited number of methods have been applied to determine the presence of enteritis virus in sea-water. These methods are the ones already used to study soft water. However, the specific characteristics of sea-water require certain modifications to these methods. Experimental research or on site examinations have to date made significant contribution to the methodology. The importance of the problems posed to hygienists and to health policy makers calls for efforts to perfect these methodologies. The results obtained in this respect, both in the laboratory and in the field, are encouraging. They confirm that the techniques developed are suitable, in the majority of cases, for the detection of enteritis virus in the marine environment, but they still remain to be perfected. The present work takes as its basis both data from the literature and the results of personal experiments.